"Lord, this is a military report from Jingnan, Chen Yu and they have launched an attack on Yang Shouliang's Shannan West Road three days ago." Early in the morning, Xu Tianxiang hurriedly found Li Xuanqing with the military report sent by Chen Yu.

Here, Li Xuanqing originally studied the appointment of Cheng Wei with Cen Tianshi. After seeing the prosperity and vitality of Chang'an, this guy completely dispelled his desire to join the army, and swore to Li Xuanqing that he would bring the prosperity of Chang'an to every state and county in Datang.

"Lord, why don't you let Cheng Wei go to Shannan West Road first, and then talk about it after a period of experience." Cen Tianshi saw Xu Tianxiang walk in, his eyes rolled and he nodded.

"Yes, let him go back and join Chen Yu, as a deputy to command the attack on Yang Shouliang, after Shannan West Road is taken, Shannan East Road will be changed to Jingzhou Province, Shannan West Road will be changed to Shannan Province, and Cheng Wei will be the political envoy of Shannan Province." Li Xuanqing nodded, "This year, the matter in Shannan will be resolved, and it will be a carefully polished matter of civil affairs in the future." All troops, with the exception of border defences, were transferred to the National Guard and the Patrol Department. ”

"What about Nishikawa? Xuan Yingwei urgently sent a message saying that Xue Yang was fighting very hard, and the battle of the third battalion in Mianzhou was becoming more and more severe. Xu Tianxiang frowned a little.

"Hasn't Channing's army already broken through the Bazhou front? Let him speed up and join Xue Yang, he must not lose Mianzhou. And Hu Jingzhang must have his own plans for such a desperate effort, let Xiao Si think of a way to see if he can find out any news. Li Xuanqing frowned, and he couldn't guess about this general of the Qi army who died early in history.

"Lord, why don't the civil affairs of Xichuan ask Rang Tuoba Si to go over and sit in the town for the time being, and go back to see if there is a suitable candidate." Cen Tianshi was also worried, the territory was large, and the political envoy of this province had a large gap in personnel, which made him a little helpless.

"Yes, during this time, some of the outstanding assassins in the mainland will be trained for the next year." Li Xuanqing didn't have any good way, and Tuoba Si's advice to Xichuan was only a temporary thing, he himself concurrently served as the director of the Department of Communications after Wu Zuodong left office, plus he was originally Cen Tianshi's deputy, in charge of agriculture, forestry and water conservancy, which can be described as a multi-task.

"Then transfer the Chang'an County Commander to serve as the political envoy of Jingzhou. Zhu Laichen has a lot of experience in the governance of Chang'an during this time, and he is good at scheduling, so he is a suitable candidate. Cen Tianshi thought about it, and he could only send this Chang'an parent official to Jingzhou.

"Let Yang Yi continue to hurry up and build roads to Ezhou and Yingzhou, so that our control over Jingzhou will not be so stretched." Li Xuanqing nodded and said, "Isn't the railway line from Taiyuan Mansion to Yizhou built by the Ministry of Communications basically completed?" Let the Railway Department allocate manpower along the Jingzhou New Road to see if we can build the railway, so that we can directly connect Guanzhong and the Yangtze River waterway, increase the speed of materials from Jiangnan and other places to enter Guanzhong, and drive the economic development of Jingzhou. ”

Cen Tianshi and the others have no opinion on the speed of economic development driven by the railway, and the short railway line of more than 200 miles from Yizhou to Tianjin has already made him taste the sweetness, so he said with a smile: "Rest assured, the people in the Railway Department who are clamoring every day to spread the railway to every county in Datang have already begun to prepare." ”

"Lord, Chief of Staff, Dongchuan Urgent." Just as a few people were discussing the next step, the personnel of the Xuanyingwei headquarters hurriedly walked in outside the door.

"What does this Wang Jian want to do? Running to attack Changzhou? Xu Tianxiang took the information and then frowned.

"Changzhou?" Li Xuanqing suddenly stood up, took a few steps back and forth, and said suddenly: "Damn, this guy wants to seize southern Sichuan." I'll just say, why did Hu Jingzhang work so hard to conquer Mianzhou, this is to take the road to southern Sichuan. ”

"Lord, aren't we in Mianzhou City a useless job for Wang Jian?" When Cen Tianshi heard this, he immediately couldn't sit still.

"Immediately send an order to Xiao Si and Xue Yang, and ask them to immediately send someone to contact Hu Jingzhang, saying that we are willing to fund his grain, grass and weapons, and get out of the way for them to go to southern Sichuan. But one thing must be understood, north of Luzhou, they must not touch their hands, otherwise the Tiance army will not mind fighting them before cleaning up Wang Jian. Li Xuanqing frowned and resolutely ordered, "Let Tuoba Sizhi not delay in Taiyuan Mansion, immediately set off to Xichuan, capture all the civil affairs of Xichuan, let Xue Yang and Qian Ning converge and continue to the south, with Luzhou as the boundary, and then attack Wang Jian to the east, so that Chen Yu will not stay and besiege Dongchuan with Xue Yang after taking Shannan West Road." Immediately mobilize the personal guard battalion to the west to support Chen Yu, leaving a veteran battalion in the Ezhou area to defend with a Jingnan integrated battalion. ”

With Li Xuanqing's order, when the entire Chang'an base camp began to make the final adjustment of the southern line strategy, Hu Xiaosi, who was in Chengdu Mansion, also made the same reaction after receiving the report of the Dongchuan secret guard, and connected with Hu Jingzhang without the instructions of the base camp, and at the same time sent people to secretly enter the city and get in touch with Xue Yang, and the two sides ceased fighting outside Mianzhou under his mediation.

After getting the exact news, Hu Xiaosi rushed from Chengdu to Mianzhou City, urgently discussed with Xue Yang and told Xue Yang his thoughts, and then the two went out of the city to meet Hu Jingzhang. After the southern front was attacked in Changzhou, Hu Xiaosi didn't care about being verbose with Hu Jingzhang and others, and directly said Hu Jingzhang's plan, "Is Hu Dashuai planning to lead troops to southern Sichuan?" ”

As soon as this sentence was spoken, Hu Jingzhang and Wen Tao, who came to negotiate, were shocked, and their plans were broken by the other party, how can this negotiation be discussed? However, Wen Tao's eloquence is much better than Hu Jingzhang's, and he took over the conversation and said with a smile: "General Hu's words are true, we originally planned to use southern Sichuan as a base and go north to recapture my lord, but the war has not yet seen the whereabouts of my lord, I wonder if your army has detained my lord?" If there is, I hope that your army can let him return for the sake of Chang'an's former acquaintance, and how about our army willing to serve your army as the master? Years of tribute, never again. ”

Hu Xiaosi smiled slightly, stretched out his hand and pulled Xue Yang, who was about to interrupt him from telling lies with his eyes open, and continued: "Your lord has already gone to Chang'an, and it is estimated that he will not be able to return to Sichuan. But I also have an idea to discuss with your army when I came here today. ”

"Oh, what does the general think?" Wen Tao also knew that the other party must have his own plans if he wanted to find himself at this time, but it was better to be able to negotiate than to exhaust the family in his hands on the battlefield.

"On the Mianzhou front, our army will open the road and let you pass, and promise that it will not continue to send troops to pursue you in the future. If necessary, we can provide you with some food and grass logistics. Hu Xiaosi clapped his hands and said: "Our two families are bounded by Luzhou, and we need to take back the land of Sichuan, and we will not allow you to occupy it, but you can choose for yourself if the other forces of my Tiance Army are not reached." ”

Hu Xiaosi's proposal was obviously unexpected by Hu Jingzhang and Wen Tao, so they were thinking about this matter for a while, compared to Hu Jingzhang considering the feasibility of this matter, Wen Tao's idea ran out of this idea, only to hear him suddenly ask: "Dare to ask the two, is it that Wang Jian has already attacked southern Sichuan?" That's why your army is in a hurry to make peace with us? ”

"General Wen is officially very intelligent. But only half of the guess was right. Xue Yang saw Hu Xiaosi staring at Hu Jingzhang, took over the conversation and sneered: "Wang Jian has already attacked southern Sichuan, but it is not because of this that he made peace with your army. Our army has always taken the world as its own responsibility, how can a small Wang Jian be compared. The reason why I let you go is because I don't want to waste time and make the people suffer. The general doesn't really think that with the strength of my Tiance army, he can't take care of the two of you? ”

Xue Yang's words were cold, but it made Hu Jingzhang react from his thoughts, glanced at Wen Tao, nodded and said: "Tiance has many generals, and we have always known it. We can also accept General Hu's proposal, but we also have one condition, and we ask for your understanding. ”

Xue Yang's heart moved, and he guessed the other party's thoughts and said: "I can be the master, and I will return more than 20,000 people who have captured your army and return all the weapons, and fund part of your army's grain and grass according to General Hu's proposal." On the day your army moves south, our army will send someone to escort you to the front line of Luzhou, and promise to assist your army in fighting if necessary, and expel Wang Jianjun's interference with you. In addition, if the family members of the middle and senior generals of your army are willing to leave, when you settle down, you can go to Chengdu Mansion to pick them up on your own, and our army promises not to stop them. ”

"In this case, your and my armies will meet outside the city today, and our army will leave for the south early tomorrow morning." Hu Jingzhang didn't say much, stood up and said: "I hope that your army's grain and grass personnel can be in place as soon as possible, and I won't hide it from the two of you, our army's grain and grass is already seriously insufficient." ”

"Within an hour, our army will send 100,000 stones of grain and grass out of the city, is this sincerity okay?" Hu Xiaosi also stood up and said with a smile: "I wish us a happy cooperation." ”

After the two families reached an agreement, they each went back to make their own preparations, and at this time, the order of the General Staff had also arrived at the front line in Mianzhou, Hu Xiaosi continued to refine the plan according to the order, and Xue Yang sent people to urge Qian Ning's army to rush to Mianzhou within three days to sweep away all the remnants of the forces in Xichuan.

At this point, Hu Xiaosi ordered Li Maozhen to be escorted from Chengdu Mansion to Mianzhou, and Li Maozhen, who had lost all hope after seeing Hu Jingzhang's army set off for the south, finally collapsed and began to cooperate with the actions of the Tiance Army, which also brought great convenience to the follow-up military operations.

The battle of Mianzhou lasted five days, and the third battalion and mountain battalion of the Tiance Army suffered a total of more than 5,000 casualties, of which 2,000 were killed, but after the battle, Xue Yang, the commander, felt a little unworthy, and later spread his anger on Wang Jian in Dongchuan.

After Qian Ning's main force and Xue Yang converged, they began to sweep Langzhou, Jianzhou and Zizhou and other places, Xue Yang personally led three battalions to move Chengdu Mansion south to Gongzhou and Lingzhou and other places, and rushed back to the vicinity of Changzhou from the west to join Hu Jingzhang in the south of Changzhou before Wang Jian captured Changzhou.

Hu Jingzhang, who was replenished at this time, did not want to have too much contact with Wang Jian, and led his army all the way to avoid areas where Wang Jian's army might be infested. He and Wen Tao have already calculated, after leaving Luzhou, immediately went to Jianchang City, Wen Tao found a map of the southwest border when he robbed the tomb in his early years, and learned that there was still a large piece of land outside the country, thinking that the 100,000 army in his hands would definitely be able to cut off the king there. He didn't want to stand on his own without Hu Jingzhang, but with Hu Jingzhang, he could at least be one person and more than 10,000 people.

This idea was also supported by Hu Jingzhang, who also knew a little about the legendary Yangba City and Lishui City, and knew the general situation of that place. The two hit it off, and they had no intention of entanglement with others at the moment, they just looked forward to arriving in Jianchang as soon as possible, and then led the army to continue to the southwest over Hengduan Mountain to find the outer land.

He wanted to leave, but Xue Yang deliberately relied on the might of their 100,000 army to force Wang Jian's army outside Changzhou to withdraw, so the two of them summed it up, and at the cost of Xue Yang's additional payment of some grain and grass, the two armies combined to approach Wang Jianjun, and the army of more than 100,000 people made Wang Jian's front-line commanders and generals all die, and they could no longer care about the reality that Changzhou could already be taken, and directly retracted to their base in Yuzhou.

Hu Jingzhang, who had completed the task, did not delay any longer, and quickly waved his army south. And Xue Yang also led the army into Changzhou. At this time, the Changzhou garrison was actually close to collapse, and it was impossible to stop Xue Yang's pace at all. After the 30,000 troops of the Tiance Army entered the city, Xue Yang also found Changhe, the assassin who was responsible for holding Changzhou this time. This literati, who was over forty years old, led the city's defenders of 4,000 men to defend Changzhou to the death at a critical moment, and it has been more than ten days since the fierce battle, and he himself was seriously wounded in the battle.

Xue Yang asked the military doctor of the army to treat the wounded soldiers such as Chang He as best they could, arranged for the Tiance Army to be on duty, and informed the Qian Ning Army, which had already entered the Suizhou line on the northern front, to quickly move the army to occupy Hezhou and recover the entire territory of Xichuan first.

In mid-October 890, when the first heavy snow had fallen in Chang'an, Xue Yang and Qian Ning met in Hezhou, and after the two armies joined forces, they sent a partial army to take the southern town of Luzhou, and the main force hoarded Hezhou to prepare to enter Dongchuan to attack Wang Jian.

At this point, the war in Xichuan was basically over, and Tuoba Siji, who had already taken control of Chengdu Prefecture, arranged for the newly appointed officials of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the National Guard, and the personnel of the Patrol and Arrest Department from the northern provinces to be stationed in various places to take over government affairs and arrange relief for the victims. And take advantage of the opportunity of the displaced people to seize the time to repair the road. With the arrival of civil affairs officials, land reform in the vicinity of Chengdu began to spread to the surrounding areas, with a large amount of land being distributed to the low-income people who were registered, and those large and small landlords being forcibly confiscated excess land. Although the measures taken by Tuoba Si Zhi were much milder than those of Li Jipeng before, they did not leave much room for these big landlord families, and a large number of measures were implemented in a short period of time, and they were also forcing these strata who controlled the wealth of society to strip off the land and return the society to fairness and justice.

At the end of November, Yang Yi put down the task of building front-line roads, personally led two national guard battalions to Chengdu, and cooperated with Tuoba Si to arrest more than 100 big landlord families who had passed the deadline but were still resisting the orders of the political envoy.

After Yang Yi arrived in Chengdu, Xue Yang gathered all the troops of the Hanzhong Group Army, with a total of more than 100,000 people, and advanced to Dongchuan at the end of the month and began to besiege the Yuzhou area, and the Dongchuan Battle officially began.